Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This compression driver was purchased as a replacement for the horn in an older EV-1502 while I have the original sent out for repair. Basically the choice of this brand/model was driven by price more than anything else...I wanted something that was going to be fairly beefy but that wasn't going to cost more than the originals will be to repair. The final choice came down to these Marathon's or a unit made by Peavey. While the Peavey is a "known brand" with a good reputation, the comparably priced unit from Peavey was listed as a much lower wattage so for the price and the difference, I decided to give these puppies a shot instead.
Ok...now if you're going to compare these to something like $500 JBL drivers, then no...these are NOT that good. I compared this driver directly with an OEM model from Eminence of similar price/quality in another EV 1502. With that, the Marathon was noticeably louder (it does have a bit higher SPL rating than the Eminence did...105db on the Marathon, 102db on the Eminence) and I also must say that it had better "definition" than the Eminence as well however, it also must be said that the Marathon wasn't really as "musical" as the Eminence (even though the Marathon is supposedly intended for DJ applications). Now this was in a side by side test down in my basement studio. The music I used for the comparison was your basic, run of the mill "classic rock" ran from an mp3 player into a Behringer 2004A mixing board into a QSC 1440 power amp. In this environment, the differences I mentioned -are- noticeable...there's no question of it. -HOWEVER- in a live performance situation I do feel this difference in performance would be barely perceptible...in other words, if the band is playing live, I don't think there's really going to be much of a difference in sound at all between the Marathon and the Eminence.
Upon receiving the package, the first thing you notice is that these things are heavy! LOL!!! These aren't those cheap $15 drivers you see from time to time...these suckers are in fact pretty serious. My only serious gripe about these things are the lack of documentation and the complete lack of customer service from Marathon in regards to questions about their own products. First the documentation: there ain't any. The box is pretty generic...has some very basic info on the driver including wattage (500 watts) impedance (8 ohms)and throat dimensions (1.5"). Of course a pretty picture of the speaker inside is printed on the box. Other than that, there is no documentation at all...the speaker sits in a little foam wrap and that's it. Second the customer support; there ain't any. Previous to buying this speaker, I tried repeatedly to contact Marathon with a few questions on their products and here over a month later, they still have yet to reply to any of my emails. This alone would make me a bit leery of any post-purchase technical support.
That said, again we're not talking JBL here either. This isn't a $500 high end driver, it's a $25 dollar driver and we probably shouldn't expect Marathon to provide the same level of customer service as a large company such as JBL might! LOL!!! As long as the product itself meets my expectations based on the price, I'm usually happy. In this regard, the TWD-500 does really well.
Now again here, I did do some comparative shopping before I purchased this unit. These speakers are currently being used for live band rehearsals and will (hopefully at some point) be used for live gigs...classic rock/blues/oldies cover band. Please also know that as of writing this, I do have nearly 30 years of experience not only as a musician but as a person who has always done his own live sound (and recording for that matter)...in other words, I do know -a little- about this stuff. This driver was again purchased as a temporary replacement while the originals are being repaired. Once the originals come back from the repair shop, they will be going back in these speakers and this Marathon and the Eminence I mentioned earlier will be going in to the spare parts bin...just in case.
Now I should also mention that I am making these comparisons to Eminence and JBL for a reason. Don't get me wrong...I -like- JBL. As a music lover, I think that JBL is truly wonderful. However I'm not only a music lover, I'm a musician. I play guitar, bass, drums, I have a small recording studio down in my basement, etc...I have -a lot- of nasty habits that need to be fed! LOL!!!!! As such, I can't usually afford stuff comparable to JBL (let alone Mackie or Bose!) so often I need to simply try and get the most bang for my buck. Over the years I've found some brands....granted that others may have issues with...that have served me very well. Behringer for example...a lot of folks crack on Behringer but honestly, we have several pieces of Behringer equipment and it has all served us very well over the years. Peavey is certainly another brand...their equipment may not always sound "the best" but it does get the job done night after night, gig after gig. Eminence falls under this same catagory...they are a very good brand that get's the job done night after night without having to cost a fortune. I have Eminence speakers in most of my guitar amps and I have never had one single complaint about them. Do they sound "as good" as a vintage pair of Jensons? No...of course not...but then they didn't cost me a second mortgage on my house either and they -do- get the job done! LOL!!!
So for someone who is used to those Mackie consoles and those big JBL mains, these Marathon units may not sound as good...however you're also not paying for those names either. The price here MUST be taken in to consideration...in other words, if you want $500 JBL drivers, go buy yourself some $500 JBL drivers...these aren't intended to be the same thing.
That said, the driver itself is pretty much what you would expect if you looked closely at the pictures...no real surprises there. What can I say...it -looks- like a decent compression driver! LOL! If you are reading this then chances are you know what these things are and how they work and how to install them and such so there's no point in detailing that here. Chances are you're like me and simply never heard of "Marathon" before and you're trying to get an impression of whether or not this can be remotely decent for the price. Basically it's pretty much your average, run of the mill, PA speaker compression driver...it screws on to the horn and you clip the positive and negative leads on to it...woo-hoo. If anything this thing is considerably beefier than most of the low end drivers out there are...nice to know that some folks can still do things right in that regard without charging their customers a fortune.
I had these cranked up pretty high for a while the other night and so far there are no apparent problems to speak of...no rattles, no nasty squeels, etc.. As I said, the Eminence driver sounded more musical but these things were noticeably louder and they did have better definition (possibly because it's newer...that Eminence is about 8 years old now although it hasn't seen much use). I really think that even at a live practice, no one would notice the difference unless I pointed it out to them. For an audiophile, yes, there is a difference but for a working musician, no big deal at all.
Now for the sake of mentioning it, I have only tested this unit -briefly-...I have not put it through the paces of the full band yet and I certainly haven't been using it for years and years. As of right now I am very impressed with this unit but that's not to say that it's not going to go "poof" tomorrow. I have no idea how hardy these are in regards to issues of longevity...only time will tell there. Again however I would have to emphasize that cost is certainly a factor...again we're not even talking $100 drivers here. With that I also don't know if they sell replacement parts for these things...if you have a tendency to blow a lot of drivers, these may end up being little more than a nice collection of paper weights. However, for the price they are actually cheaper than a lot of repair kits are too. More over...so far...they don't seem "cheap". They do seem rather substantial and well built.
Honestly I would have easily given this product a full 5 stars if it weren't for the lack of documentation and the complete lack of response from their tech support. A newer company must learn that -every- customer counts and when you can't be bother to respond to simple questions, you're telling people "we don't want your business". As such, if I were a business owner and were considering a large purchase from this company, I'd probably think twice about it but for small, individual purchases (say as a spare for a working PA speaker), yea...I'd probably buy from them again...for now at least.
So to wrap that all up, if you're looking for a decent, powerful compression driver for a working rig and you're not looking to spend a fortune, these TWD-500 seem to be an exceptional deal...they sound decent enough, they can handle some power, they seem well built...for around $25 each, you really can't ask for too much more. Hopefully this company will get their stuff together and we'll see more decent affordable products from them.
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Marathon Twd-500 1-Inch High Power Compression Driver
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